Before the Sun Sets
by Jaegrey
Summary: While sparring on the balcony, Pyrrha notices Jaune's mind is elsewhere. She tries to help, but in doing so, she starts a conversation that would change the two of them. A oneshot featuring Arkos.


"So what you're saying is that you like Weiss?" is how Pyrrha summed up Jaune's rambling.

Minutes ago the two were sparring as they normally do, falling into habit. But it was obvious Jaune was focused on something else, or someone else. His reactions were slower, his stance completely open. Concerned, she called the practice to a halt and asked what might be troubling him. He told her everything; he never was one to keep secrets too well. Although he did try to hold a false bravado.

"N-no! Of course _she's_ the one who's madly in love with me! I just- I thought that her love for the Jaune-meister should be requited is all," he laughed off the thought of him being in a one-sided love.

"...So you like Weiss?" she saw through him.

"...Yes." he said, dejectedly.

"And you want my help getting you two together?"

"U-huh," Jaune's reasoning was straightforward and simple, like him. Pyrrha would be the perfect medium between Weiss and him.

"And how do you suppose I do that?" Pyrrha asked, willing to go along with his schemes. She'll do it with a heavy heart, but she was in no position to be selfish, so she thought.

"Well, I dunno. Maybe kick up a conversation with her, start talking me up, you know: girl talk," offered Jaune with a simplistic idea of what 'girl talk' was.

"You mean like propaganda?" she translated what he was asking into her own words.

"Exactly! Do you know what to say?"

"Well, that's easy. I'd tell her how honest and sincere you are. You're modest, kind, and trustworthy. And, when the time calls for it, you're a level-headed leader. You even have quite the sense of humor," honesty was all she spoke. There was no need to say any white lies when she knew all of his good points.

"Nah, that would never make her go out with me," Jaune dismissed her words. It never occurred to him that those were her true admirations of him.

"What do you mean? Why not?" she asked.

Jane sat against the wall and leaned his head back against it. He still had been worn down from sparring, even if he didn't give it his all. Though if he did, though, Pyrrha still would've… gotten him acquainted with the ground just as much. He had a scrape or two from where his aura couldn't hold out, but that's exactly what he was there for: training it. He knew he could be better, and he knew he _had_ to be better. This was one of his reasons for it.

"That sort of stuff is great for the friend-zone, but what girls like her really want is a guy who's strong, smart, and confident. Y'know… kinda like Neptune," Neptune often came up when he pictured a guy suited for Weiss. It had nothing to do with the fact that she likes him… mostly. But regardless, he was all Jaune was not: cool, composed, capable, other 'c' words that meant he was better than Jaune. Respectable, sure, but more so enviable.

"You shouldn't doubt yourself! There are plenty of people out there looking for someone like you!" Pyrrha was one such person. She couldn't bring herself to tell him, though. It was another instance of 'practice what you preach', in her doubting herself.

"Still, I'd rather lie through my teeth than try to win her over with that. It'd be like entering a race and then telling the guy next to you that you've never walked before now: They'd run all over you!" he drew up an analogy.

"You're afraid Weiss would... trample you?" His full intentions were lost on her, though, as she failed to decypher Jaune's down-to-earth nature.

"Figuratively, yes," he said, imagining how Weiss would brutally turn him down given the chance.

"Jaune, that's who you are!" Pyrrha continued to encourage him. She leant down and rested her hand on his shoulder.

"Exactly! That's exactly who I am! Look at me, Pyrrha, I'm nothing special," he stood up and presented himself, spreading his arms.

"You're the most modest person I know," she said.

"Or the one with the lowest self-esteem," he mumbled, turning away so he was barely audible to her.

He sighed and bowed his head in disappointment. He truly regretted that about himself. It was one of the several things he would want to change about himself. What Pyrrha saw as modesty was, to him, only a depraved disappointment in himself.

"Well have you tried telling her how you feel?"

"Of course not! A guy never spills his heart first, that's how things work!" he turned and acted as though she proposed something radical and extreme.

"You never know, it may be what she wants to hear," she said.

"What does she want to hear?" Jaune's interest was piqued.

"Well, if I was in her position then, I'd want to hear what you liked about her," it was easy for Pyrrha to tell him this: she spoke from the heart in all its earnesty.

"I-I-I dunno… she's refined… and beautiful… and she's just so… perfect," he had to stop and think about what he saw in her. It wasn't a baseless infatuation. No, what Jaune liked about Weiss was everything he wasn't. Opposites attract, right?

"Nobody's perfect, Jaune," Pyrrha told him.

"What are you talking about? You're pretty perfect," he said.

"I'm… _far_ from perfect. I've sacrificed a lot to get where I am today," Pyrrha thought of everything she would be, everything she would have, if only she weren't the way she is.

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked.

"Well for one, most people are put off by how I am. I'm sure you've noticed I don't have many 'friends' I can talk to," she enlightened him.

"But… you're talking to me," he noted.

"Yes, I am. And I'm glad," she smiled warmly to him.

"You mean you _enjoy_ talking to me? And here I thought you were just putting up with me this whole time. You know, out of pity?" It wouldn't have been the first time, Jaune thought.

"Of course not! You're one of the only people I can open up to… I honestly don't know where I'd be with you!"

"Please. That just makes me sound like some sort of hero," Jaune laughed, passing the thought of him being more than comedic relief off as a joke in itself.

"Then what if I told you that you _were_ my hero?" she asked hypothetically.

"I'd probably burst out into laughter," his low self-esteem didn't allow for him to believe it. He was the jester, not the knight, "Why do you ask?"

"Because you are!" she claimed.

"Oh, come on… When have I ever done anything to make you think that? What have I done to make _anyone_ like me?" he asked rhetorically.

"More than you think," she turned and looked out off the balcony, "If it weren't for you, I'd be all alone. With how we formed teams, I wouldn't have been paired up with someone as friendly and open as you. I wouldn't have anyone to spend time with or laugh with. I wouldn't wake up looking forward to all of the nonsensical fun we all would have… You've made more of an impression than you thought."

"Pyrrha… I don't-... what are you trying to say?"

"Well, Jaune," she begins, taking a deep breathe then turning to face him, " _I_ like you! I know I may not be beautiful or refined, and I'm certainly not perfect, but-"

"What are you talking about!? You- you're all of those things, Pyrrha, you're wrong... You _are_ perfect. Too perfect for me..." Jaune interrupted her. It was one thing for Jaune to say something like this, but Pyrrha was better than him.

"But Jaune..." she tried to say everything her heart wanted to.

"What I'm trying to say is... I don't deserve someone as good as you, okay? You should be with someone just as perfect as you," he explains with a heavy heart and a heavy sigh, "I-I'm sure... You'll definitely meet someone like that."

He wanted to laugh off the sad tone of this whole conversation with some sort of joke, as he usually does, but his mind wouldn't search for humor. Not now. Sure he like Pyrrha too. But that was a result of her being by his side, for being the most supportive person for him around. Yet he saw her as deserving the best, or at least someone as kind as she is. At least… someone better than him.

"Jaune, I don't _want_ someone like that! All I could ever want is right before me..." she finally said what she wanted.

"I... You really mean that?" Jaune was almost in disbelief. Were it not for her honesty and sincerity he grew to know, he would be.

She nods.

"Then... I guess it's the same for me," he said, after a pause.

"The same?" she didn't quite understand what he'd meant.

"Yeah. I-… It- it's stupid, really… I mean, me. I can't believe how stupid I've been," awkwardly, he pieced together his thoughts for her.

"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself," again, she tried to encourage him.

"But it was so obvious!" He held his hand to his face, running his fingers through his hair. He leaned against the wall he sat by before. He looked her way and smiled just as warmly as she did to him, "You're everything I could ever want in someone - and more!... And you're right next to me..."

Taken aback by his words, she turned away. She tried to hide her smile, running ear to ear, and the redness that flushed her cheeks. Jaune may not have known, but his were the words she had wanted to hear. She was almost in tears, overcome be emotion.

"Jaune, close your eyes," Pyrrha said after composing herself.

"What? Uh, okay, why?" confused, he complied to her request.

"Remember back in the forest, when I unlocked your aura?" she asked him, slowly taking a few steps toward him.

"Yeah, what about it?" he remembered. It was the day the two of them became teammates.

"Would you allow me to do the same with your heart?"

Jaune felt her hands against his shoulders. Before he could open his eyes and ask what she was doing, though, his lips were met with hers. In that indescribable moment, his eyes went wide, filled with her resonant beauty and the serene pink-orange of the sunsetting sky.


End file.
